Thursday, June 20, 2013 (White Sulphur Springs, MT)

We got a call last evening that Rich's first mother in law had passed away.  We knew it was coming, just not when, that is why we were staying put for awhile.  We were glad that we took the time to visit Lucille in April when we were in the Lebanon area.  We are leaving early tomorrow to head back to Oregon with just the truck.  We have made arrangements to leave the fiver in the area while we are gone.

Most of the day was spent getting things organized and packed up for our quick trip back to Oregon.  We did have a quick visit in the morning from a couple in the campground, Chris and Helen, that were interested in some places to camp in Oregon as they are headed that way.  They seem like very nice folks and have been doing the full time RV lifestyle for a bit now - I forgot to ask them how long but the atlas they showed us had around 6-7 years worth of roads traveled.  That has been one of the interesting things about this lifestyle, the interesting people you meet and their stories.  They gave us some good tips on the Florida and southeast part of the USA as they raised their children in Florida.  Helen also has agreed to babysit my pot of flowers while we are gone since they will be here for a couple more weeks.  Thanks Helen!

For the next week or so, I may only be posting sporadically, but once we are back in Montana, I will get back to more regular posts.  Until then..... 

Wednesday, June 19, 2013 (White Sulphur Springs, MT)

Our morning started out the same as the last several days, with our jog/walk routine.  Boy I tell you, at 5,000 elevation you sure do notice the thinner air.  Hopefully by the time we get down to a lower elevation, we'll really be able to jog without getting so winded.

After our breakfast, our other neighbor was walking by with her little Yorkie, Tibby and another little mixed breed dog which I've forgotten his name already, so I took Gracie outside for a meet & greet.  Gracie is getting better about meeting other little dogs, she is not displaying quite so much submissive behavior and is more friendly.  I think she's finally getting used to dogs her own size.  Now with big dogs, she is very friendly, I think it's because she was so used to Samson our St. Bernard.  Anyway Gracie and I had a nice visit with Donna and her husband Vaughn.  Donna and Vaughn are from Georgia, though they just sold their house and will be moving to the Florida coast, again, very nice couple and a fun little visit. 

The plan today was to take a walking tour of the historic buildings they have in town.  So after we had our lunch, we headed out walking.  Well it was pretty warm out and Gracie was having none of this walking on gravel so we decided to go back and get our bikes.  This is a view heading back to our campground - you can see how rural the area is.

We rode into town, which was only a couple blocks from our campground and pulled out our map and started locating some of the historic sites.  While we were riding around, the town just smelled of lilacs, they were blooming everywhere, it was so fragrant out.  

Here is a picture of a church steeple from a church build around 1910

Here is a picture of the Castle & Carriage House - we plan to go back and take a tour when we don't have Gracie with us.

Here is a pic of a house built in 1889.

Do you also notice those dark storm clouds, they were forecasting thunderstorms again this afternoon, looks like we should head back to the 5er.  But here is another house we saw on the way home.  It looked like it was being renovated.  If you enlarge the picture, it has some interesting details around the windows.

We got back home before the rain came, but yikes, looking out the side window of the 5er, is that a funnel cloud?  I had never seen one before.

  So I quick got on the National Weather Service website and yep, we are in for some SEVERE thunderstorms with large hail, gusty winds and a possible tornado threat.  Wow, we weren't expecting that, so a quick prayer was said while we kept an eye on the weather.  Finally they cancelled the SEVERE weather alert and now we are just under a watch category.  Whew, thank you God.  I'm sitting here updating our blog listening to the rain and thunder, but it hasn't been too bad, I'm just glad that alert was cancelled, that was a little scary for a few minutes.

So another relaxing evening is planned, watching another movie after dinner.  We'll see what adventures we have tomorrow. 

Monday & Tuesday, June 17 & 18, 2013 (White Sulphur Springs, MT)

I am combining Monday & Tuesday entries because I have no pictures for these two days and because the majority of the day was spent just relaxing around the campground and chatting with folks.

Both mornings we woke up and did our jog/walk routine.  The roads around here are mostly gravel.  The campground is on the edge of town and right next to us is a farm/ranch with cattle.  So it is a scenic jog/walk checking out the cows and horses.  We even saw a couple deer in the fields.

Monday after our breakfast we were just hanging around the 5er doing research on the membership campground info we were given.  We had just started grilling some hot dogs when Glen and Rosi, the other DRV owners stopped by to chat.  We made arrangements to stop by and visit at their rig after we had our lunch.  I love checking out other people's rigs and getting decorating ideas, etc.  So after our lunch and a quick pick up in our rig - had to put away all our research materials that we had on our table, we headed over to chat with Glen and Rosi.

Wow, what wonderful, friendly and informative people.  They have been full timing for 12 years.  They had just upgraded to the Mobile Suites six weeks ago.  We spent around 3 to 4 hours chatting with them about their experience with the Coast to Coast (CC) & Resort Park International (RPI) membership clubs, their experience with purchasing their new Mobile Suites and all the stories that go along with learning about a new coach.  They have the same model as we do except theirs is a 38 foot, versus our 36 foot.  It was interesting seeing what that extra 2 feet got you.  They have a beautiful coach, they have the same color scheme as we do but their furniture was different which gave it a different look.  They came and toured our coach and we showed them a couple of things that we had special ordered into our coach.  We couldn't believe when it was time to say good bye that we had just spent that much time chatting, the afternoon just flew by. 

So we had our dinner and watched a movie from the office.  They have a movie and book exchange which is really nice.  They don't charge for the movies, you just sign them out and bring them back the next day.  With the books, you can exchange or just take one if you want.  So far, I've resisted the temptation to browse the books too much after our bag of books deal we got in Spokane.  I've been reading from Rich's hardback collection of Louis L'Amour that we have along.  I'm trying to get through them so that when we are back at my mom's in September that we can drop them off.

Tuesday, our morning was pretty much a repeat of Monday.  We did go to the office and sign up for Passport America which is a 50% off campground club which we had planned on doing anyway and reserved another two nights until we can decide if we are going to join CC or RPI. 

I spent some time on the computer doing some budget bookwork and then went outside and sat outside and read in the sunshine.  Glen and Rosi had given me some magazines from the Escapee's RV club that had some interesting articles.  Sitting outside also gave me the opportunity to meet and chat with a few of our other neighbors.  People staying in this park are so friendly, it's really pretty nice.  Our next door neighbor, Ernie came over and chatted for awhile along with his 10 year old grand daughter, Justice.  You sure do meet some interesting people and hear some interesting stories.  I forgot to mention that earlier that morning we were walking in the park with Gracie and stopped and chatted with a couple people.  One couple spent their time between Baja, Mexico - San Felipe to be exact and Canada.  I got to tour their motorhome which was nice, but I liked our 5er better.  She also gave me a coupon for a discounted stay at a couple campgrounds in British Columbia and Alberta which may be helpful as we are eventually headed that way. 

I took back the magazines to Glen and Rosi and spent some more time visiting, they are heading out in the morning so we exchanged email addresses and said our goodbyes.  Maybe we'll see them down the road some day.  It sure was nice visiting with them. 

We had dinner and watched another movie.  I forgot to mention that both Monday and Tuesday nights that there were thunderstorms forecast, but it is really interesting to see the weather patterns here, it seems like they hug the mountains on either side of us and just go around us here, which is nice.  We can see these dark storm clouds on either side of us, but it stays nice and dry where we are.  We have more thunderstorms in the forecast over the next couple of days so hopefully it will stay that way.

Sunday, June 16, 2013 (White Sulphur Springs, MT)

We had an early check out time this morning, we had to be checked out by 10:30 a.m. so it was an early to rise morning.  We had a quick breakfast and got into our packing up routine which by the way is getting easier and easier and quicker too. 

We were on the road around 9:30 a.m. and were headed to White Sulphur Springs which was a 126 mile drive, for me a perfect distance.  We arrived at Conestoga Campground around noon and got checked in, very friendly folks.  When we were researching our next stop we saw that they were offering a special rate for two nights if you listened to a presentation on a membership campground and since we had exceeded our budget by quite a bit with our last stop at Gardiner we were looking to save some $$$$.  The owners were at church and would stop by our campsite later in the afternoon.  The park is out in the middle of no where but was a very nice looking and neat park, you could tell they took pride in their park.  

A picture of our site - notice the mountains in the distance (between the fiver and the truck)

This is a picture from the other direction - notice the mountains in the distance, we are between two ranges, the Castle Mountains and the Big Belt Mountains.  We are at about 5,000 elevation here in the park. 

When we pulled into the park we noticed that there was another DRV Mobile Suites.  We'll have to be sure and meet those folks.  Well as we were setting up, a gentleman walked by and introduced himself as Glen and yes he was the owner of the other Mobile Suites.  We stopped and chatted for a few minutes and both agreed that we'd like to tour each other's rigs later on.  He also mentioned that he and his wife were Coast to Coast and Resort Park International Members and that they saved lots of campground fees that way.   Good deal. 

After we got set up, I took a few minutes to go around the fiver and wash the windows.  We have such pretty views we didn't want to look at them through dusty windows.  The owners, Sally and Gordon came by and introduced themselves and said whenever we were ready to come to the office and listen to their presentation, they assured us it was very low key and not high pressure at all. 

So after the windows were done, off we went to listen to the Coast to Coast and Resort Park International membership presentation.  Sally and Gordon were great, they spent time explaining the two programs and gave us some information and told us no hurry, take some time to think about it and check out the numbers/campgrounds.  Now I know we've all been in situations where people are trying to sell you something and you can hardly get away from them and if you don't make the deal right then and there, you loose out - not so with Sally and Gordon.  Whew, that sure made it nice and the programs actually sound pretty good.  But we did want to do some research on the campgrounds and the locations and make sure that we would actually use them. 

So we went back to the fiver and ran into town to the only market that was open on Sunday and picked up a few dinner items.  White Sulphur Springs is a pretty small town, around 900 residents, there really wasn't much to see.  The Sulphur Springs are located in the motel and they are open to the public.  After our dinner we took a walk around the park.  They have a fishing pond for guests and this windmill which pumps air into the pond for the fish.  The sunset was beautiful tonight.

Saturday, June 15, 2013 (Gardiner, MT)

We woke to sunshine and blue skies with warmer temps, too bad it wasn't like that yesterday when we were touring Yellowstone and taking so many pictures. 

We spent a relaxing morning, took Gracie for a little walk since yesterday, she was with us in the truck but couldn't get out much since they don't allow dogs on the trails.  After our walk with Gracie, we walked into town to explore and have lunch.  When we checked in the other day, the lady in the office told us that the Iron Horse Grill had good food so we were going to check it out.  The deck overlooks the river so that's where we chose to sit.  It was so beautiful, watching the river which is running high and is rather dirty looking because of the snow runoff, apparently it clears up later on.  We saw several rafts go by while we were eating.  We also chatted with two young fellows sitting near us, they were passing through the area and headed outside the park to install some seismic equipment.  They were college kids working on their grad program.  They were from the San Francisco Bay area.  It was pretty interesting hearing about their work and travels.   

After lunch we started walking through town and a parade was starting.  A rodeo was in town for the weekend and the parade was part of the festivities, so we stopped to watch.  I have never seen so much candy being thrown to the kids.  There was so much that it didn't even get all picked up.  Of course, there weren't all that many kids in this small town. 

This was interesting, it was a mule train, there were about 18 mules in the train and they were very well trained.  The rider had them go around in a big circle periodically which is what they are doing in this picture.  They are big animals and are actually very pretty. 

After the parade was over we walked to the edge of town where they have this big arch that is the entrance to Yellowstone park on the north end.  There was a bus load of Japanese that had just gotten there and were taking pictures.  It was interesting because I offered to take a picture for this couple and when I did, at the bottom of the screen some Japanese writing appeared, I wondered what it said???  Anyway, once they cleared out, we got our photo opportunity.

After our walk we went back and hung around the fiver for awhile and then decided to take a drive to Jardinne which was just up the road 5 miles.  I had read it was an old mining town.  Well just up the road a bit, the road turned to gravel and was pretty steep.  There was a campground along the way that we stopped and checked out, but it was way too rustic and small to ever bring the fiver.  Once we got to the top of the hill, we took this photo which is a shot of Gardiner where we were staying.  The photo doesn't really show how high we had climbed.  

Jardinne was very interesting, it was definitely rustic.  We wanted to stop and take a picture of this old house, but the gentleman was standing outside talking to a neighbor, let's just say he reminded me of an old miner you read about in a western novel.  You would have to be hardy to live in Jardinne, especially in the winter.  Even though it was only five miles from Gardiner, it was like it was in a different world.  As far as we could tell, there were only a few houses tucked in the hillside, there was no store, gas station or anything.  It was a beautiful drive though. 

After our drive was finished, we gave the truck a quick wash in the local car wash to get the gravel dust off; we are traveling tomorrow and want the truck to be nice and clean.  It was a nice short stop in Gardiner, MT but it is time to move on to the next stop.  



Friday, June 14, 2013 (Gardiner, MT)

We got up early so we could get an early start on our Yellowstone tour today.  It was cloudy and cool out but no rain so that was good. Our plan at the beginning of the day was to do one of the loops today and do the second loop of the park on Saturday.  So off we went.

We got to our first stopping point and got out to do our first walk around some of the thermal features and oh my was it cold.  What were we thinking, we didn't bring any heavy jackets with us and we were sometimes around 8,000 +/- elevation depending on where we were.  Yesterday at Mammoth it was very warm walking around, today was the complete opposite.  At one point we even saw some snow coming down in the distance, brrrrrr.

Anyway, here are a bunch of pics from our day, unfortunately some of them don't do the sites justice because of all the gray clouds and steam.  Our wildlife sightings for the day were bison, bear - yes we saw bears three different times, and a couple antelope.  I was disappointed we didn't see any baby bison this time around.  Unfortunately, I've lost track of the names of all these thermal features, but we did stop at all the major sites, Norris Geyser Basin, Paint Pots, Old Faithful, Lake Yellowstone, Mud Volcano, Canyon Lower & Upper Falls as well as a couple more I can't recall the names for.  

Pics from Norris Geyser Basin Area

Pics from the Paint Pot Area

 This is the Grand Prismatic Spring which is one of the most photographed thermal features in the park but because of the clouds and the huge amount of steam coming off the spring because it was so cold outside, you couldn't see the beautiful colors. 

Picture of Old Faithful, and because of the cloud cover, you can't hardly see the difference between the clouds and the water.  I had forgotten how impressive Old Faithful was, I was pleasantly surprised and it was worth the stop and the crowds of people.  Even on this cold and windy day, there were tons of people waiting to see it go off.

This is a picture of Yellowstone Lake which is very large.  The mountains and the lake were beautiful.  Back in my younger years, I had worked a summer at Yellowstone and worked at Lake Lodge which is the next picture below.  Things had definitely changed in the area since I had been there, there were a lot more buildings and people. 

When we were visiting the Mud Volcano area and walking on the boardwalk looking at all the thermal features, there was this bison grazing alongside the boardwalk.  They are massive.  They weren't very pretty this time of year because they are shedding their winter coats.  We saw several different ones throughout our day, but I figured one picture was enough.  =)

This was our first bear sighting and boy did he have the traffic backed up.  He was across the river and there were so many cars stopped and people getting out to take pictures that they have rangers directing traffic.  It was pretty exciting to get to see him, we think he was a grizzly since he was so much larger than the other two we saw.  The whole summer I worked in Yellowstone, I didn't see a bear at all, which was OK with me because before we got there that summer, a rangers wife had been out jogging and had been mauled by a bear and killed, so everyone was extra cautious that year.

Either the Upper or Lower Falls in Yellowstone, sorry I can't remember, but it's the one you usually see on calendars or postcards and I can see why because it really was very beautiful and impressive.

 This was our second bear sighting and it's not the greatest picture, but just before this was snapped, he had lifted the log in the air, I think he was moving it to look for his dinner.  This sighting there were only a couple of cars stopped because I think he had just come out into view.  This was the closest we got to a bear, there was no river between us, it was just up on the hillside beside the road.

This was our third bear sighting and it was a momma with her two cubs, though we only caught one of the cubs in the picture.  The cub is the light brown one.  This sighting had tons of cars stopped and a grumpy ranger directing traffic, so we just took the picture out the window as we were creeping along through the throngs of people who had stopped.   

When we got to the Old Faithful area around noon and took a look at the map and the time of day, we decided to do the whole park today and then have Saturday to explore the town of Gardiner.  It was a long day with lots of driving but we saw some amazing scenery.  

Thursday, June 13, 2013 (Gardiner, MT)

Today was another travel day.  We have reservations in Gardiner, MT for 3 days, that's all we could get.  We had 130 miles to travel and most of it was on I-90.  We had a bit more to do this morning because we had to stop at the dump station before we left since we weren't at a full hook up site but we got on the road around 10:30 a.m. 

We arrived at the Rocky Mountain RV Park & Lodging around 1:00 p.m.  It is a nice park, but you have to drive up a very steep hill before you pull into the park.  We are around 5400 elevation here in Gardiner.  After we got set up we decided to drive into Yellowstone Park and check out the Mammoth Hot Springs area. 

It is amazing how many people from different countries are touring Yellowstone.  It was pretty crowded and the busy season is usually July & August.  We both have been to Yellowstone many years ago so it will be interesting to see the changes.  Here are some pictures from the Mammoth Hot Springs Area.

We didn't spend too long in the park as it was starting to get late.  We plan on getting up early and heading out to explore parts of the park before it gets too crowded and maybe we'll see some animals.  Our wildlife sightings today were just one elk and a couple deer. 

Wednesday, June 12, 2013 (Whitehall, MT)

We slept in a bit this morning, today was a relaxing day. We did our jog/walk routine, got our showers and had a late breakfast. We spent the rest of the morning reading and entering our June expenses into our budget worksheet. We decided to go check out the caverns that are here in the park, so we grabbed our sweatshirts and headed out.

We got up to the visitors center and purchased our tickets and a tour was just getting ready to leave, good timing except we had to run back to the pickup and grab our sweatshirts and camera. We got to the starting point and they had already left but the ticket guy said go ahead and catch up with them. It was very warm and very steep and I had put my sweatshirt on at the truck – wrong move. I had to stop and take it off or I was going to have heat stroke – it was pretty warm out. Here are some pictures of the view on the hike up to the entrance of the cave. The view was spectacular and yes we did catch up with the tour.

that circle of trees in the valley is where we are camped

We had talked to the camp host yesterday and asked his impression of the cave and he wasn’t overly enthusiastic, though he did say that they were worth seeing, so we didn’t know what to expect. After the tour, we were both very impressed with the tour. Our tour guide was very informative about the history of the cave and the different formations we were seeing. At one point in the middle of the cave, during one of her talks, she shut down the lights and only had a candle which is how the "old timers" saw the cave. It definitely changed your perspective as it was very dim and you couldn’t see the colors as well. I guess I forgot to mention that the cave is lit with electricity. Then she blew out the candle so we could experience the actual darkness of the cave. At one point in the cave, we were 1 mile high above sea level. The tour was a good 2 hours long and you went up and down a lot of stairs and had some tight spots where you had to duck. There was even one part called the Beaver slide in which you had to slide on your bottom a few feet. The original cave you could only go so far and then had to turn around and retrace your steps but now they have blasted an exit so you don’t have to retrace your steps which was nice. If you are ever in the area, I would definitely say it is worth the entrance fee and your time. We were glad we decided to take the tour.

Entrance to cave

  

End of tour

After we got back from the tour we had to run into the nearest town of Caldwell to fuel up the truck as we are heading out in the morning to Gardiner where we will stay for 3 nights while we tour Yellowstone. We so far have been able to avoid having to fuel up with the fiver attached, it just makes it easier not to have to maneuver around tight spots and low clearances found in some stations. Well I can tell you there is not much to Caldwell, pretty much just the gas station/café/store/bar/rv park – and it’s all together on one little piece of property next to the freeway. We did see a two story school – I assume an elementary school based on the playground equipment. Not much happening in Caldwell. We got our fuel and an ice cream treat and headed back to camp.

Back at camp we spent a couple hours lounging around with our books and spent a little time looking at information on Yellowstone. Then it was time for dinner. About that time, the wind came up and the sky got dark. It got so windy that we had to pull in two of our slides because the slide toppers were flapping around so much we were afraid they might get torn off. After dinner, we took a walk with Gracie (she didn’t get to go on our cave tour) in the wind, boy that wind can blow around here. The rest of the evening was spent downloading pictures from today and writing up today’s adventures and of course reading. It’s a good thing Rich and I both love to read.